Nvidia Board Launches Independent Probe After CEO Jensen Huang Admits Affair With Suspected Chinese Spy

Nvidia's board of directors opened an independent investigation on Sunday after CEO Jensen Huang admitted in a company-wide memo that he had an extramarital affair with Alice Huang, a former executive at Singapore-based data center firm Megaspeed who US intelligence officials believe was recruited by China's Ministry of State Security. In the memo, Huang wrote: "I was unfaithful to my wife. There is no excuse for what I did," apologizing to his family, colleagues, board, and shareholders. He said he supports the independent review and is committed to protecting Nvidia and US national security.

Alice Huang, also known as Huang Le, is a Chinese national who served as a senior executive at Megaspeed, one of Nvidia's largest customers. According to reporting by the New York Times and Financial Times, US intelligence concluded she was working for Beijing and had been under surveillance for allegedly facilitating restricted flows of advanced Nvidia chips to China. Megaspeed's Malaysian unit purchased at least $4.8 billion in advanced AI equipment, including roughly 136,000 GPUs and Nvidia's Blackwell chips, between June 2024 and February 2026, with investigators suspecting some equipment was diverted to China. A US intelligence memo alleged Alice Huang was recruited specifically to gather information on Jensen Huang and influence his public advocacy for looser US export controls on AI chips, a position he had been pressing with the Trump administration during the same period. In December 2025, Trump approved H200 chip sales to China. A short-seller report from Culper Research in May 2026 had previously described the pair's ties as "uncomfortably close."

The scandal deepened with a New York Times report that a US Commerce Department probe into suspected Nvidia chip smuggling through Megaspeed was halted and transferred to the Justice Department after Nvidia's legal team contacted investigators, citing authorization from a senior Commerce official, raising concerns among investigators about potential interference. Three US House committees have requested Huang appear for congressional questioning on November 18, one day after Nvidia is scheduled to report earnings on November 17. Nvidia's board said it has no current reason to believe company secrets or national security were compromised, and Huang remains CEO while cooperating fully.

China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun called the espionage allegations "completely unsubstantiated" and "nothing but smears," while state-run newspaper Global Times accused US media of fabricating the spy story and warned the episode could hurt US-China ties. President Trump, while declining to say he had spoken with Huang, called him an "honorable guy" and voiced support for him staying on as CEO, adding he "probably has an excuse." Analyst Dan Ives of Wedbush called Huang "not replaceable," and CNBC's Stephen Witt said "Nvidia is Jensen Huang."

Nvidia shares fell roughly 5 to 6 percent in premarket trading and opened down as much as 8 percent, wiping out approximately $290 to $361 billion in market capitalization, ranking it among the nine largest single-day market value losses in US stock market history. The stock entered a bear market, down 30 percent over the prior 34 days and erasing roughly $1.81 trillion in value. The broader market, however, rebounded sharply: the S&P 500 rose about 2 percent, the Nasdaq gained over 3 percent, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed nearly 1.7 percent, with investors rotating out of Nvidia and into the rest of the market. Raymond James warned the scandal could accelerate congressional support for the MATCH Act, which would tighten semiconductor exports to China, a development that could threaten the fragile US-China trade detente and China's supply of rare earth minerals.